Aromatic polyesters exemplified by polyethylene terephthalate (hereinafter abbreviated to "PET") and polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) have excellent mechanical strength, heat resistance, chemical resistance and other properties and, hence, have been widely used in various industrial applications. Among them, polyethylene-2,6-naphthalate (hereinafter abbreviated to "PEN") is superior to PET in mechanical strength (Young's modulus and breaking strength), heat resistance (long-term heat stability and dimensional stability), chemical properties (chemical resistance and gas barrier property) and other properties by virtue of the rigidity and plainness of the molecular chain and, in recent years, have attracted considerable attention (Japanese Patent Publication Nos. 29541/1973 and 40917/1973). High-performance films of PEN, which have utilized the above properties, for example, base films for magnetic tapes and capacitor films, are currently on the market. Further, PEN is a promising candidate for use in other applications, that is, as a high-performance packaging material in the field of various packaging materials.
Paper, various plastics and the like are currently in use as packaging materials and applied to packaging materials having a gas barrier property, freshness retaining packaging materials, heat-resistant packaging materials, easy-open packaging materials and mischief preventive packaging materials.
Regarding easy-open packages, various easy-open packaging materials have been developed such as those using a stretched film, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 55059/1988 and 96066/1988 and Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 11258/1979; easy-tear packaging materials exemplified by pouches provided with a cut, a scratch, a perforation or an opening tape, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 52065/1987, 39465/1987, 82965/1988, and 67273/1988; peelable packaging materials wherein the contents are taken out by peeling off a heat-sealed cover, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 109768/1987, 27254/1988, 96067/1988, and 307073/1988; and easy-open caps.
For easy-tear packaging materials, air tightness and an increase in speed have been pursued in bag making/charge packing, and regarding opening, it is a common practice to use a method in which the end face of a bag is subjected to sealer tear cutting so that tearing can be carried out from the bottom, or a notch is provided so that tearing can be carried out from the notch (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 39465/1987). In the above methods, troubles frequently occur including that the bag cannot be torn straight, the contents are damaged, or the liquid is scattered. On the other hand, vacuum packaging or retort packaging is, in many cases, inconvenient because a cutting tool should be used or it is difficult to take out the contents from the package because the contents are adhered to the bag. In recent years, easy-tear packaging materials with various ideas being incorporated have been developed.
Overlap packages in confectionery and tobaccos are generally provided with an opening tape (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 67273/1988) to impart an easy-open property to the packages. In general, the overlap package is produced by a single packaging system, and an easy-open stretched polyethylene (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 55059/1988), polypropylene, or cellophane is used in a small thickness (20 to 30 .mu.m) to impart an easy-open property to the film. On the other hand, for shrink packaging, the material, thickness, packaging machine, package form, and the like for the film used vary depending upon the applications and quality required. Therefore, various easy opening methods exist, and this, together with various technical problems, is one of the reasons why easy opening is not extensively adopted in shrink packages.
In general, the stretched film is, of course, easily torn in the stretching direction, and this tendency is particularly significant for a highly crystalline stretched film such as a high-density polyethylene (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 55059/1988).
Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 11258/1979 discloses, as a synthetic resin film having an easy-open property, polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene, polystyrol and nylon films which have been uniaxially stretched by 3 to 10 times.
Such a highly crystalline film, however, has problems including that the cut cannot be smoothly propagated and hang-up occurs in places, the film is locally stretched to render the opening very difficult and feather-like residues occur to deteriorate the image of goods. Although this film can be broken in a uniaxial direction, it is difficult to break the film in a direction perpendicular thereto, so that the contents cannot be easily taken out from PTP (press-through pack) using the film. Polyolefins, such as polyethylene, have a poor gas barrier property and, hence, have a problem that the contents of the package is deteriorated by oxidation.
The above plastic packaging materials generally have problems including that 1) they cannot be torn by hand or stretched and torn, i.e., do not have an easy-open property, 2) the gas barrier property is low, that is, the gas permeability is high, and 3) since various materials are used in combination, it is difficult to recycle the materials.
On the other hand, PTP's using aluminum as a cover do not suffer from the above problems. Since, however, the blister sheet and the cover are strongly bonded to each other with an adhesive, the separation of the blister sheet from the cover is so difficult that it is impossible to separate the resin and aluminum from each other for recycle. Further, even though the used packs are incinerated, aluminum remains unburned.
Further, since aluminum used as a cover in blister packs and PTP's is opaque, any optical test of the contents cannot be carried out from the side of the cover with the blister sheet and the cover being integrally formed.
Furthermore, also from the viewpoint of preventing the contents from being kept out of mischief, these packages are preferably easy to open and transparent so that whether or not the contents have been once taken out can visually learn.
An object of the present invention is to solve the above problems of the prior art and to provide a packaging film which can satisfy requirements for gas barrier properties, easy-open properties (including easy-tear and press-through properties) and can be recycled.